The present invention is concerned generally with a material transfer conveying apparatus. More particularly the invention is concerned with a material conveying apparatus which receives and accelerates feed material by centrifugal forces to a preselected velocity and along a predetermined range of vector directions. This directionally accelerated feed material is then transferred in a substantially synchronized manner to another moving conveyor system, thereby minimizing erosion and wear of the conveyor system components.
Mining conveyors and such other material handling systems frequently require the transfer of abrasive feed materials from a holding bin, a transport device or a conveyor to another material handling device. In modern conveyor systems, both speed and efficiency requirements of conveyor transfer operations make harsh demands on the conveyor system components. The feed materials are usually coarse, hard materials which are highly abrasive and readily cause rapid wear and breakdown of the components constituting the conveyor system. Typically, these problems have been solved by various means, such as, (1) completely redesigning conveyor systems to avoid and minimize the effect of abrasive material transfer operations, (2) using expensive wear resistant components in the conveyor system, (3) employing complex conveyor drive systems to adjust relative speeds between transferor and transferee conveyors and (4) using robotic pickup devices to synchronize speed and direction of travel of a material feed load to avoid relative displacement of the material transferred to a moving conveyor system.